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Opinion

Elections focus on economy

Other Commentaries

The United States of America is 3.8 million square miles, filled with 340 million people, producing over $30 trillion in gross domestic product per year. We are the fourth-largest country by land, third by population and first by GDP. We no longer know each other, care for each other or like each other. We are a nation of isolated people staring at screens and filled with existential terrors about the other, whoever the other might be. On Tuesday night across America, those existential terrors played out with fear of the other. Hispanic voters who voted for President Donald Trump ...

High turnout shows voters are engaged

Editorials

It isn’t really a surprise when people don’t turn out for an election the year after a president is selected. Especially in Pennsylvania. As a perennial swing state, Pennsylvania is lobbied hard during a presidential year. The ads are everywhere — on TV, on the radio, online and in mailboxes, flooding homes in a monsoon of postcards. So when we come to the off-year, when positions like municipal council seats and judges of election are on the ballot, it’s understandable that people are still exhausted from the year before. The 2024 election was enough to make anyone want to ...

Age of madness, collapse of fear

Other Commentaries

When a 29-year-old man in Minnesota can post a TikTok video allegedly offering $45,000 for the assassination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, we can’t dismiss it as another outburst from an online extremist. It’s a symptom of something far deeper — the moral corrosion of our civic life. According to the FBI, Tyler Avalos uploaded a video on Oct. 16 captioned: “WANTED: Pam Bondi. REWARD: $45,000. DEAD OR ALIVE (PREFERABLY DEAD),” complete with Bondi’s image in a rifle’s crosshairs. This wasn’t done in secret corners of the dark web. It was posted openly on ...

GOP has forgotten nation’s roots

Letters to the Editor

In a recent Mirror ad by the Republican County Committee, it touted that “It’s a great time to be a Republican.” Such a statement is far from true or accurate. As a registered Republican, I am mortified and embarrassed to be associated with such a party. The present party has been captured and controlled by despicable uncaring members led by that lying dictator Trump. He and his GOP cronies have worked to control the media and do everything to support the wealthy. The party has abandoned the average person by slashing programs and positions that work for the benefit of ...

Women most affected in return to work

Editorials

“Women have fallen behind in the (post-pandemic) return-to-office push, reflecting the barriers they can still hit when juggling careers and families, even after decades of workplace gains.” That was the observation of the Wall Street Journal in a report in its Oct. 25-26 edition. The message within that paragraph is that, although women’s pay has experienced a decline, when stacked against men’s, it is not due to intentional, gross, beefed-up unfairness — less pay for the same work — on the part of companies toward them. Rather, it is the unfortunate impact of shouldering ...

Solar appreciated for power savings

Letters to the Editor

After reading a Nov. 5 letter expressing concerns about the Prince Gallitzin solar array, I reviewed the Altoona Mirror articles from both Oct. 21, 2025, and Aug. 30, 2024, regarding the installation. Neither article mentioned batteries being part of the system, which leads me to believe there are no batteries involved. This is typical of grid-tied solar installations, which feed (sell) excess power directly to the utility grid and draw from it when needed. That means that the expense to dispose of imaginary batteries at the end of their supposed end of life will be exactly ...